Spring

It's good for the soul

Epic

Millie was so proud to share with us last night that she won a letter writing contest her teacher held in their classroom.  The students were given very specific instructions on how to write a letter to their teacher convincing her that they had the best spring break ever.  Then she picked the best one.  She reported that all of the students did their very best work for this task, but that Millie's contained all of the elements she was looking for.  We couldn't be more proud of Millie and her hard work.  Our girl LOVES to write and doodle and make lists so this was right up her alley.  Her reward was a pack of mini-gel pens.  She was in heaven.  It was very sweet to hear her give us the news last night, I could tell she was both proud and humble as she was so surprised when her teacher started reading the letter and she realized it was hers.  She wasn't expecting to win!  I snagged pictures of her letter off of her teacher's blog to share below.  

Way to go, Millie!  We love to see you work so hard on your writing and to read all the things you are thinking of!

Just Because,

 someday soon, scenes like this won't be happening around here any more ...

Cloud Dough

More spring break adventures at home...  My sister and her kids came over the Wednesday of spring break to make and play with cloud dough.  Cloud dough is flour mixed with baby oil and is similar to the 'magic' sand that you can buy in stores in its texture.  It is also very messy.  (no wonder my sister volunteered to bring all of the materials to our house...).  It did keep all five of the kids very happily entertained for the afternoon though -- and then they all got to take baths while the kitchen was cleaned up!

In theory the dough was supposed to stay on the trays ...

...that theory didn't really hold up very well

The fun continued for these three in the tub!

Thanks, Sister for the fun afternoon -- next time we'll do it at your house ;)

St. Patrick's Day

The girls were determined to try to catch O'Reilly the leprechaun again this year and created some 'traps' in the hopes of doing so.  They were very sincere in their desire to just kind of keep him as a pet if they caught him and enticed him with kind words and comfortable homes to live in.  Alas, he just couldn't be trapped and he got away again.  And, as usual, he didn't leave without creating a little (very little) havoc in the house.  I can't tell you how much the girls LOVE this little adventure every year -- and now Teddy is in on it too.  I think O'Reilly will be visiting our house for many more years to come.

 At least they will eat the green cereal now ;)

One-on-One

The kids all had so much fun on their solo adventures with my parents over spring break.  Teddy got to go to the Museum of Transportation and explore the trains, while the girls each got to go on a hike, have playtime at a playground, shop, and sleepover at my parent's house.  It would be an understatement to say they all had fun.  Thanks so much, Lainie and Grandpa for showering our children with such love and sharing your passions with them!

Teddy at the Museum of Transportation

Millie on a 3-mile hike

 This picture pretty much sums up Millie -- always ready for adventure

Merrill on her hike

While each of the girls was on her overnight adventure, the other got to go on a date with me.  Merrill and I went to see "The Little Prince" at Coca and then went to dinner at Kaldi's and Millie and I went to see "Cinderella" in the theatres followed by dinner out.  And while all of THAT was happening, Teddy got to spend some 'guy' time with Scott -- once for a bike ride and once for a movie at home.  It's not easy to get one-on-one time with the kids these days (except for Teddy -- he spends LOTS of time with me :) ), so it was a real treat to take each of the girls out and do something fun with them and just get to hear what was going on in their lives.  Hopefully we can get back to more 'date' nights over the summer.  

Ready to ride!

Spring Is Here

I'm way out of date in posting again ... ah well.  Spring break was several weeks ago now, and I think we're all ready to go back to it already.  So nice to have a week with nothing on the schedule.  Scott wasn't able to take much time off, but he was able to take off work early most days which was nice.  I think we were one of the only families I know who didn't go on some kind of vacation, so our week was really just spent at home and with family -- no play dates or anything.  The weather was nice at the beginning and end of break and kind of cool and rainy in between.  The kids spent as much time outside as they could -- riding bikes, climbing trees, swinging, and generally just having fun.  We took a few outings with my sister and each of the kids got to have a special day/sleepover with my parents (well, Teddy's was the week before and was not a sleepover, but it still counts).  I was able to take each of the girls out for a date during the week too and Teddy and Scott got a couple of 'guys only' days.  Scott and I even started a bit of spring cleaning in a couple of areas of the house (with many more areas on the 'to-do' list still...).  All-in-all it was a very nice week. 

Our first outing was the Monday of spring break.  We took the kids up to Laumiere Sculpture park to walk around and have a picnic dinner with my sister and her family.  We were not good park visitors as we let the kids climb on the sculptures ... it's really just too tempting.  It made it a little tough to just have a relaxing walk though -- too many chances for injuries!  They sure had fun though. 

 We couldn't get Charlie in on this picture ... 

 All of the cousins -- the boys are getting a bit smushed.